Time to Restore Diplomacy

Senators Patrick Leahy, the Vermont Democrat, and Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican, are to be applauded for fighting back against the Trump administration’s ill-advised cuts in State Department spending. But it’s about more than just money.

In addition to protecting essential funding, we need a new paradigm that restores diplomacy to its rightful place as the primary instrument in a foreign policy that has been far too focused on seeking military solutions to complex security problems, and without success.

As the agreement to cap and roll back Iran’s nuclear program has shown, diplomacy works, given time, persistence and creativity. And diplomacy is the only viable option for pressing challenges like how best to curb North Korea’s nuclear capabilities.

The military options for dealing with this problem range from the horrendous to the unthinkable. The search for a more successful national security strategy must begin with a revitalized State Department and a renewed respect for the value of the nonmilitary tools of statecraft.